I don't normally post personal stuff. And by that, I mean I have a separate journal that I keep that isn't meant to see the light of day. That said, I wrote in my journal today, and in searching for things to say about 2017, I thought I should share this with you.

“Why do we fall?”

That’s the question Thomas Wayne asks young Bruce in Batman Begins, after the boy fell down a well and landed in a cave full of shrieking, fluttering bats. He was scared and crying and was fairly traumatized by the incident, the way a 10-year old would be. It was a rhetorical question, really.

“Why do we fall?”

“So we can rise.”

Looking back at the last year, I can say that I hit my lowest point in quite some time. So many parts of my life that I had counted on were suddenly less stable, and I fell. Hard. And it was probably the best thing for me. I relearned an important lesson that I had forgotten. Rock bottom isn’t the farthest you can fall; it’s where you decide it’s time to start climbing again.

I fell very far away from who I know myself to be, and with the help of family and friends too numerous to name, I rediscovered very important things about me, about what I believe and about the path that I’m on. I learned about how to manage grief and how to finally let go of stuff I’ve held on to for far too long. I learned that it’s okay to cry. I learned that strength isn’t just about stoicism and being an anchor for other people; it’s also about letting the things that affect you do just that, and then moving on. It’s realizing that sometimes, just sometimes, you need an anchor, too.

2017 was a year of learning to deal with failure, both the kind you can prevent and the kind you can’t. And that will only serve to make me a better person, a better writer, a better friend. So, I say, bring on 2018. I welcome it with open arms.

Why do we fall?

So we can rise.